A slower run-up (building up healthy support along the way) is all part of BTC "growing up". Although we all love to see green flashing charts and mega % upswings, it is in the longer term interest for us to see a nice, solid, healthly uptrend as you suggest.
What are your favourite privacy coins?
The problem is that I'm not really a fan of privacy coins myself, at least not now. For the sake of diversifying your portfolio, I don't see Monero going wrong anytime soon, just because of the fact that the infrastructure is so strong, since everyone and everything is mining it :)