Your suggestion is an excellent model, but not knowing your budget, sensor and body size concerns, image quality concerns, etc. all others can do is generalize. You mention a certain bridge camera but one may deduce from a general request possible recommendations for even point and shoots. The considerations of different features may drive your selection. I would make a general suggestion to consider sensor size, type viewfinder (and its capability in bright lights), zoom range, etc. As far as zoom, keep in mind that if you want extreme zooms (generally 600+) then hand held gets more difficult and most require tripod or steady bag for acceptable pics. In my search for similar equipment, I found there to be very few photos, perhaps 1 of 20, that I even considered keeping if the zoom was 600+ and handheld. I opted for the Lumix FZ1000 for several of above concerns, 4K and Time Lapse, and the 5 Axis Image Stabilization it offered. The Lumix line does have exceptional viewfinders in my opinion and if your wife is not accustomed to lcd screen shooting the viewfinder is often easier to use unless one is happy to shoot with a pocket phone camera system. I determined years back to keep my search in such matters concentrated on what my wife wants/likes as opposed to what I or others thought made more sense from my perspective. Good luck in your search.

I think that Lumix makes terrific cameras including "bridge" cameras. Onetime when I was preparing for a cruise, my preferred camera had to go off to the camera hospital. In desperation I got on ebay and found an FZ5 for a ridiculous price, about $30. I bought it and it came soon. I was shocked by its appearance. It was about 60% in size compared to my more recent Lumix bridge. It was a 'baby' version. I fell in love with it for being a travel camera easily fitting into my pocket. It was in the original box, obviously tucked away for many years. There was no learning experience, all the Lumix programmable features were there.

https://www.dpreview.com/reviews/panasonicfz5