Nice tuning - definitely the second one looks richer and more saturated. You might also try tuning up your jpeg settings in camera, just so they come out a bit more to your style...but keep enjoying playing around with the RAW files not only for general tweaking but for some big recoveries of flubbed shots!
Dpmfloyd - Don't forget you can adjust the jpeg settings in camera for more contrast, saturation, sharpness, and color tone, as well as white balance - all will improve your out-of-camera jpeg results more to your liking without requiring any editing afterwards. Now, editing can be fun, so I'm not discouraging you from doing it! But just didn't want you to think the only way you can get nice photos is by editing...get the shots right, and the settings right, in camera, and even your jpegs can come out much nicer looking. And jpegs can be tweaked in post-processing too - so all is still not lost.
RAW is for either those who want maximum headroom for tweaking and manipulating output, those who absolutely love to post process almost as much as they like taking photos, or those who might struggle to get the shot right in camera every time and need the extra recovery room in RAW to get their shots looking good. And processing jpegs is something some enjoy doing, others not so much. It's up to you which way you want to go!