In addition to Jonathan's very helpful series of articles on digital capture and processing on his website, you should take comfort in the fact that RAW files are not meant to look as sharp and luminous/saturated as what you saw through the camera lens when you made the photograph. This is not an accident or anything wrong with your camera. There is a very useful article covering this and alot of factors written by Chuck Westfall of Canon's Marketing Department (see Canon Website) - it is a technical paper covering the basics of using the 1 series cameras. You are not alone in recovering from this kind of surprise on first using a high-end digital camera.
Regarding sharpness, the camera has an anti-aliasing filter that reduces acutance somewhat, but does not destroy detail. You recapture the acutance through post-capture processing in Photoshop using a sharpening tool, be it Photoshop's USM, or better still one of a number of custom plug-ins such as PK Capture Sharpener. The contrast and saturation you think you are missing is easily recaptured in Photoshop using a Curves adjustment layer, and occasionally a slight saturation tweak with an HSB adjustment layer, though this latter adjustment is normally much less important than a small amount of work in Curves. With minimal and appropriate post-capture processing you will replicate what you thought you saw through the viewfinder - and more.
